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Death by commissioning

….That master plan looks like a determined effort to wrest away NHS dental care from small autonomous units. That model that has been supplied by a legion of conscientious practitioners ever since the beginning of the NHS. This applies both in salaried dental service and in general practice.…….

….’Savings’ is the name of the game. That coupled with ongoing ‘efficiency’ signals a race to the bottom, as each year becomes more and more squeezed than the last. It can’t be long before the social enterprises seek freedom from the obligations of NHS terms and conditions – think about the savings to be had there!…..

…..So, it is clear that the NHS in England stands to gain by ‘going large’ in all its areas of practice. But its gain is at the expense of the dentists who serve it. In essence, the wholesale dismantling of access to NHS terms and conditions provides the opportunity for savings. Proposing such a move overtly would be met with horror and outrage. Doing it stealthily and by downstream consequence may be less dramatic but the result is the same. It is not a good result for either dentists practising in England, or for patients expecting enduring, high quality care…